Out of the more than 500 pharmaceutical companies operating in Trinidad and Tobago, two control the lion’s share of the local pharmaceutical market.
That’s the assertion of the President of the Private Pharmacy Retail Business Association, Glenwayne Suchit.
As he addressed members of Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PACC) on Monday, he outlined some very serious issues in the industry.
“Between 2020 and 2025, June 2025, top EXIM Bank forex recipient was Aventa Trinidad and Tobago, US$100,184,000. Over 59% of the national VEN list, that is public and government procurement contracts between 2015 and 2024, a nine-year period, were awarded to companies, previously Smith Robertson, now Aventa, and Bryden Pi.”
Mr. Suchit said these two companies control over 70% of the market.
“They carry all the speciality products, meaning oncology, gastro, all cancer drugs, high-end, high-cost, they carry everything, hypertension, stomach problems, ulcers, glaucoma. Every imaginable complaint that a patient has, Aventa has positioned themselves to be controlling all the international drug brand houses, all the major ones, and all the major generic brands also and over the last year they began acquiring the generic brands from some of the smaller and medium companies, so basically they are controlling everything.”
Executive Member of the Association, Shazim Tullah, noted that there are about 534 pharmacies in the country.
“Fifteen years ago the university trained about 12 to 13 pharmacists. Now we’re training 60 to 70 or 80 every year. That brings us to the question: where are we finding jobs for all these people? The government takes a part of them, we may take a part of them, private pharmacies, and then you have a very large number of people who cannot find jobs. Hence the reason why there are so many pharmacies being opened. With respect to profitability, profitability has been severely down over the last 10 years.”
The PACC was examining the State’s acquisition of pharmaceuticals as it relates to the current processes applicable to its importation and approval.